By Victor Okoye
Abuja, April 10, 2025 (NAN) Sunny Akapson, Coach of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Volleyball Club, says his team are on a mission to redeem the image of their organisation.
Akapson told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) after their classification match on Wednesday against Club Omnisports Descartes of Cote d’Ivoire (OMD), that he encouraged the team to go all out and fight for the win, so as to protect the image of the organisation.
NAN reports that NCS bounced back after several setbacks in the tournament, which saw the team miss out on a quarter-finals spot.
They rallied and won big in their classification match at the ongoing 2025 Women’s African Volleyball Club Championship in Abuja.
This was after they defeated Club Omnisports Descartes of Cote d’Ivoire (OMD) in straight sets, winning 25-21, 26-24, 25-13.
“We were motivated about the fact that this is not where we want to be, but it is unfortunate that we have found ourselves in this situation.
“But of course, we have the image of the NCS and the CG to protect and that is why we said okay since we are in this category, we need to do everything possible to redeem our image.
“The Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, MFR can not invest this much in the tournament and end up getting nothing for all his efforts, to show for it.
“So, we motivated ourselves and said we needed to come out and redeem the image of our organisation and the CG.
“In fact, this was our biggest motivation that made us come out and play the way we did and really fight today,” he said.
The coach noted that there was no pressure on the team to win at all cost throughout their preparation for the championship, adding that there was rather a lot of motivation.
“I think maybe we got distracted by the motivation because the CG very well motivated the team as well as the Sports Secretary General who did everything possible and was solidly behind us.
“So, I don’t really know what happened. It’s just unfortunate where we’ve found ourselves,” he said.
The coach, however, noted that the standard of the tournament was very high, adding that one can not predict who was going to carry the day.(NAN)
Victor Okoye is a trending sports writer and senior editor with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Okoye is also the current Vice Chairman of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), FCT Chapter
